Owen had excruciating pain, to the point that he couldn't even go to the toilet or get dressed

Owen would have these extreme fits of screaming and scratching and everywhere he sat he would leave a deposit of dead skin and blood.

"He couldn't get dressed or go to the toilet without screaming from the pain and he never slept through the night.

"It was so distressing for him and for us. As a parent you just feel completely helpless.

"We would try to comfort him but sometimes even a hug was too much because his skin was so sore.

"It was a living hell. Every day was like torture and he would plead with me for it to stop. I used to promise him it would even though we had tried all the treatments.

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An eczema herpeticum attack left Owen's cheek looking half burnt

"It made me feel so guilty to lie but I didn't know what else to say. I used to cry a lot.

"And seeing his brother in so much pain and me and his dad so helpless had an impact on Oliver too. It really knocked his confidence."

Owen's screams through the night made Mrs Richards worry that people would think they were hurting him - and some days she even felt like giving up.

And things became even more desperate in January 2013 when Owen suffered an attack of eczema herpeticum - a flesh-eating bacterial infection.

Mr and Mrs Richards rushed Owen to hospital and he was admitted with what looked like a bout of chicken pox but by the next morning Mrs Richards said it looking like half the tot's face had been burnt off.

Eczema herpeticum can cause blindness or even be fatal if it eats its way through to the brain.

Mrs Richards said: "When Owen got eczema herpeticum it looked like chicken pox when we took him into hospital, but by the next morning the infection had eaten away at the flesh on his face.

"He looked like he had been burnt in a fire. It was horrifying.

"I had never heard of the infection before but now we know it spreads so rapidly and if you don't catch it, it can be blinding and even lead to death."

Owen was put on intravenous antiviral drugs to combat the infection but worried about the impact strong medication would have on her son, Mrs Richards looked into herbal alternatives.

The mother took a year off work to lookafter her son and after extensive research made contact with Shulan Tang, a professor of Chinese medicine based in Manchester, to start Owen on herbal treatments in May 2014.

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Mrs Richards said 'Owen's transformation has been absolutely unbelievable'

Within just four months of drinking a herbal mixture twice a day, Owen's improvement was so remarkable he was able to run and play and even started school.

The herbal mixture, created and regularly changed according to Owen's needs, included herbs such as bloodwort root, white mulberry leaf, Chinese anemone root and Imperatagrass.

The concoction was designed to release the heat from Owen's body, soothe his itching, fight toxins, promote skin growth and clear his airways.

And Mrs Richards said his miraculous turnaround has been life changing not just for her little boy but for the whole family.

She was so overwhelmed by the power of Chinese medicine she is now doing courses with the Shulan medical centre on herbal remedies and acupuncture to help her own patients.

Mrs Richards said: "Owen's transformation has been absolutely unbelievable. He has so much more energy and his happiness is palpable.

"Every morning he wakes up singing and shouting silly things and laughing.

"He never used to be like that, he was just so consumed by his eczema - we all were.

"But now we're free. It's had a massive positive effect on all of us. I'm so proud of him."